Aja St. Germaine
Ken Szymanski is the official Writer-in-Residence for Eau Claire, Wisconsin—a distinction for which he was recently honored by the Arts Wisconsin and the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. In late October, he traveled to Green Bay to receive The Wisconsin Creative Champions Award alongside poet laureates and writers-in-residence statewide.
Yet in addition to bringing home such prestigious awards, he’s also the author of Home Field Advantage. He has rooted himself deeply within the culture of Eau Claire and has contributed to the writing culture since the 1980s; beginning as a high school newspaper editor, continuing as a freelance music journalist for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram, and more recently, collaborating with Volume One and Converge Radio while focusing on the genre of podcasts and spoken word.
Above all else, though, Ken Szymanski is an educator. As an English teacher at Delong Middle School, he sees writing in some of its most vulnerable and fresh stages and knows how to push it to greatness. As a past student of his, I owe much of my own literary success to the fire he lights within young writers. I recently reunited with Ken to glean some insights on both his teaching and writing process, as well as to hear more about his aspirations in his newest role as Eau Claire’s Writer-in-Residence.
Aja St. Germaine: How does your experience as a writer shape your teaching style, and vice versa?
Ken Szymanski: When teaching 8th grade English, I try to lead by example as a reader and a writer. I show the kids my struggles through several drafts. It’d be tempting to only show them my final drafts, but that would be misleading. Writing is a process, and “struggle” is part of the process. I try to normalize that to the students so that when writing doesn’t come easily, they don’t think something is wrong with them. This is a good reminder for me, too. When I’m working on a story and I’m having difficulties, I think of it as a sign that I’m doing it right.
AS: You mention on your website that you have been delving into combining spoken word and live music within podcasts—but you started in the 1980's with a very different genre. How has the constant culture shift in Eau Claire impacted your work and genre?
KS: In some ways, it comes down to opportunities. My first book was a choose-your-own-adventure written in junior high. At the time, all I really had was an imagination and a notebook. When I had the opportunity to write concert reviews for the Leader-Telegram, that became my focus. When the Running Water Poetry Slam started, I turned my attention to cranking out three-minute spoken word pieces. Volume One gave me the chance to focus on profiles, essays, and articles on a wide variety of topics. Converge Radio gave me the opportunity to write podcasts, and the Galaudet Gallery shared their space for us to offer performances that combined spoken word with live music. Basically, I take the opportunities Eau Claire gives me. Some of these came down to luck and others were luck created by hard work.
AS: What are you hoping to see Eau Claire grow into while you are the 2020-2022 Writer in Residence? What impacts are you hoping to make?
“I hope to give my fellow writers a chance to be heard during this difficult time—and to create an audio time capsule of area writers from this time in Eau Claire.”
KS: The start of my tenure coincided with the Covid shutdown, which has made it tough to do indoor live events. So I started a video series called Snapshots, where each episode features a different local writer. The video features audio of the author combined with local photography and local music. I hope to give my fellow writers a chance to be heard during this difficult time—and to create an audio time capsule of area writers from this time in Eau Claire. While I’ve missed the live events, the advantage of the Snapshots episodes is that they reach far beyond Eau Claire. The Chippewa Valley Writers Guild did such an outstanding job of fostering a sense of community among writers, and this is my way of fostering that community in a time where we can’t meet up in ways that we used to. The funny thing is that we ended up reaching a larger audience through the videos than we often did for the live events. So it’s been a nice accidental discovery of a tool we can use moving forward. I also love how it’s brought photographers and musicians into the literary mix. It’s really been a lot of fun working with them and bringing different types of artists together with a common goal.